Joined the Airborne club in '82. Congrads young paratrooper!!! As for jumping out of a perfectly good plane plane, remember military planes are millions of moving parts, all made by the lowest bidder! Leaving mid-flight sounds like a pretty damn good idea! "AIRBORNE"!!!!!

 

My last flight was crewed by reservists, they did a "combat" take off, and needless to say we were all more than happy to jump outta that one. I wasn't too keen on landing in that one after their take off performance

 

We have the reserves pick us up one time while I was in the 509th in Italy and they had the whole damn ramp loaded up with wicker furniture!!!!! They had to leave half of it to get us on the bird! Boy were they pissed!!!!!

 

It's and Army school. As a Marine, you are allowed to have a sense of humor. The school is not that hard and if you get on a High Performance Aircraft having been issued a functional parachute, you are definently going to exit same aircraft while in flight.

 

My class had 700 students and 250 beds. Every morning the First Sgt. would step out of his office and say he had shrimp and pizza for anyone ready to quit. After the first week we were down to 300 and by graduation only a few were still on floor mattresses. It's not really hard but the school is about hard wiring you're brain to perform the correct action, every time so repitition can become boring.

 

Been jumping since 1986 so I've got over 15 yrs of "feet and knees together". Loved every minute of it and you're never really realize just how much until you're somewhere that you can no longer do it, plus physically being in those type of units will keep you in the best shape and toughen you up for future endeavors. Have fun and stay safe.

 

Not to be sexist, but a lot of tiny girls do well in that school while the boys seem to fall out of the runs. No excuse for that, it aint that difficult. Secondly, you are already a Marine and will stand out some. Dont add to that with a lot of boisterous attitude. Be hard, be professional and when in doubt, keep your trap shut (same advice for officers)! Finally, the first jump is cake. The second one is where you really understand what it is you are about to do. Dont mind eff yourself. Far too many before you have done it successfully. My hat is off to you as my baby sister is a recovering Marine (and you know she loves that joke). AIRBORNE!!!

 

HA, When I went through airborne school in the spring of '99 I had the interesting experience of being in a class that was 70% Marine. All of the student leadership were Marines. It made from some very interesting marching on the first day because half the time you couldn't understand a single command. Luckily I had a squared away Lance Corporal as a jump buddy that took pity on this army private.

Spending time with the Marines put me into good practice for drinking when I ended up at the 82nd

 

free fall is better.